Only four months after successfully opening the highly awarded Là¼bker Golf Resort near to the second largest city in Denmark, writes Frank Undall, Poul Anker Là¼bker has now launched plans for another high profile resort project close to the centre of the Danish city Kolding. The new golf project will include at least 27 top quality holes, clubhouse, academy, wellness centre, restaurants, up to 150 all-year houses and 450 holiday homes.
The site is beautifully located on a gentle slope towards the ocean between the peninsula of Jutland and the island of Fyn (Funen). Ideally situated 10 kilometres from the rapidly developing cultural city of Kolding, with Copenhagen just two hours drive away, and both Là¼bker Golf Resort and the German border just an hour away. The project has been baptised AH Golf Resort for the initial phase.
48 year old Poul Anker Là¼bker, who has an impressive record of developing, merging and going public with large windturbine companies, has joined forces with another windturbine millionaire, 65 year old Arne Hougaard, on the new project. Arne Hougaard has over 20 years experience of building a company that produces and sells screw bolts and flanges especially designed for windturbines. Arne Hougaard sold the controlling interest of his company in 2007 for a three-digit million kroner sum.
The Developer
Arne Hougaard began to play golf five years ago and has had plans to develop a resort for a couple of years, but things developed slower than he would have liked, so in November 2008, barely a month after Grand Opening of Là¼bker Golf Resort with 36 Robert Trent Jones II golfholes, Hougaard contacted Poul Anker Là¼bker with his project plans. From then on things moved quickly and on February 4th 2009 the project was handed to the authorities for public scrutiny and go-ahead.
”According to our plans the golf facilities will be ready for Grand Opening April 24, 2013. Our ambition is to be designated”Best New International Golf Course” in the opening year, as we have been awarded at Là¼bker Golf Resort, and we have already had Bruce Charlton from RTJII in Denmark to do a first examination of the new site. He was thrilled. The terrain is different from Là¼bker, as the slopes in Kolding face the sea. It is a very exciting site and project”, says Poul Anker Là¼bker who expects this to be a financially profitable business.
Currently there is no decision on how financing is to be achieved, but there is a possibility of following in the footsteps of Là¼bker Golf Resort with public shares. In less than two weeks enough public shares were sold to finance the whole golf facility, so, Là¼bker Golf Resort today, is also remarkable for having no debts. Both Arne Hougaard and Poul Anker Là¼bker expect that the financing will be 100 percent ready when cutting the first sod in 12 to 18 months.
The Golf Business Speaker
”We are convinced that the demand for high quality golf resorts is increasing in Scandinavia and that the new project and Là¼bker Golf Resort will complement each other. And we also think that the timing compared to the financial crisis is perfect”, says Poul Anker Là¼bker, who will be one of the speakers at the highly respected KPMG Golf Business Forum this year at Celtic Manor in Wales, 4-6 May 2009.
As reference to the new project, Là¼bker Golf Resort is the largest and most acclaimed golf facility so far in Northern Europe. GOLF Magazine in USA has designated Là¼bker Golf Resort as”Best New International Golf Course 2008”; the resort was also a finalist in”Development of the Year” by GOLF Inc. and the absolutely unrivalled #1 in”Top 30 Golf Courses in Denmark” by GOLF Magasinet.
”AH Golf Resort is also a very ambitious project, that integrates city development, all-year tourism, rebuilding of the nature, culture and not least developing a special profile to both the city of Kolding, the whole region and the country. More people will have richer experiences within the nature, and the wildlife will be better nurtured as there will be free access without any kind of barrier”, says Poul Anker Là¼bker.
Là¼bker Golf Resort www.lubker.com/UK-224.aspx